A wide variety of conventionally known fishing lures have been developed to attract fish to a hook to be caught. Many fishermen prefer live bait for this purpose. It has been found advantageous to use, in addition to live bait and artificial baits or lures, substances which are known to have fish-attractant properties. Such substances include oils and extracts which provide an odor in the water which attracts fish to the area.
Although it is desirable to use such fish attractants, a recurring problem has been the delivery of such attractants to the area where the fish will be caught beneath the water. One method has been to pour or spread the fish attractant on the water surface in the form of an oil. Since the oil remains on or near the surface and does not move with the lure, such method is of limited value especially when trolling.
Another method is to rub the desired oil, extract, or fish attractant directly on the exterior of the bait or lure being used. Contact with the water quickly disperses the small amount of oil retained on the surface of the lure necessitating frequent reapplication and preventing prolonged use of the enhanced lure. Similarly, filling a flexible, sponge-like lure or part thereof with fish attractant requires frequent reapplication and is not susceptible of prolonged use.
Yet another known method is to incorporate the fish attractant, oil, or extract directly in a plastic utilized to form flexible, plastic, artificial fishing worms. This method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,778. The described method has the drawbacks of requiring incorporation of the fish attractant during the molding and formation of the flexible lure thereby preventing reuse of the lure and incorporation of any more fish attractant in the lure unless the lure is melted and remolded. Moreover, certain fish attractants such as natural and biodegradable oils desirable for use in helping to catch fish are incompatible with plastic molding processes. Also, the flexible, plastic, molded lures are expensive to manufacture. Molding of the fish attractant directly in the flexible plastic lures does not assure a constant, uniform slow rate of entry of the attractant in the water around the lure to provide continuous attraction of fish to the adjacent hooks. Also, one is limited to a specific attractant lure.
The problem of delivery of the well-known fish attractant substances has been and remains the primary problem in the use of such substances.